The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

A new wall for Israel, in Cairo

First there was the West Bank wall, then the Gaza wall, then the Israeli-Egyptian wall in Sinai — and now the Egyptian government is building a wall outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo to protect it from protests.

It may be a necessary thing — all countries have a responsibility to protect foreign missions in their territory. But, at a time of renewed indignation over the deaths of Egyptian border guards in the context of Turkey's downgrading of relations with Israel, it certainly sends a weird message.

There are those, notably in Israel, who will no doubt regret that it has come to this: Israeli diplomats being protected from an angry Egyptian population that is now as anti-Israeli as anytime since the two countries were at war. They should face the reality: this anger does just stem from the shootings, it also comes the fury at their own government's inaction (or connivence) over the Gaza war, the Lebanon war, the ever-expanding settlements in the last three decades.